The Obesity Epidemic

It’s growing. And we’re growing. A news article in the October 17th JAMA summarizes a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on obesity in America. At our current rate of growth, by 2030 more than half of adults will be categorized as obese in 39 of our states. In 2011, Mississippi had the highest obesity rate and Colorado the lowest.

And echoing the blog I wrote on October 18th about health care costs, the price tag of treating obesity-related diseases will be $66 billion additional dollars. Productivity losses could be between $390 and $580 billion. America’s expanding waistlines will create additional cases of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and arthritis. We are on track to see the incidence of diabetes in adults over age 20 rise from 11% to more than 31%. Obesity could contribute to more than 400,000 additional cancer cases over the coming two decades.

Psychiatrists see patients whose underlying disorders and life styles contribute to weight gain, and many of our medicines contribute additionally. BTP will soon report on work with metformin (Glucophage and others) to attenuate some of this problem, but at the forefront should be efforts to encourage healthy eating choices and portion control, exercise, and modest but important lifestyle changes, such as walking rather than riding and preferring stairs over elevators.

Walking down a street—more often in some parts of the country than others—I see visual evidence to support the data about the increase in obesity. The clinical facts are overwhelming, and the economic figures are sobering. Attention must be paid.